Hacker collective Edalat-e-Ali (Ali’s Justice) breached the transmission of an Iranian state TV and radio station, IRIB, during president Ebrahim Raisi’s speech during the country’s commemoration of Revolution Day on February 11. The speech was interrupted for roughly a minute and was replaced with a logo on the hacker group airing the slogan “death to Khamenei”.
The hackers were appealing to the Iranian public to withdraw their money from government banks in addition to protesting against the government and showing up for a public demonstration to be held on February 16. The group claimed responsibility for the attack on its Telegram channel by issuing the following statement.
We the Adalat Ali group hacked the Islamic Republic of Iran’s TV and Radio transmission. First of all, the Adalat Ali group offers its condolences to the entire freedom-loving nation on the decade of dawn and the impure arrival of Khomeini the executioner to Iran.
Edalat-e-Ali isn’t the only hacktivist group targeting Iran at the moment either. In September 2022, hacking collective Anonymous also announced OpIran, to counter the ongoing crackdown on protestors and dissent following Mahsa Amini’s death. Iran’s Morality Police arrested Amini for allegedly wearing her hijab too loosely.
She died in police custody, with the authorities claiming natural causes following heart failure when she was at the police station. However, it’s widely believed that she was the victim of police brutality and the entire country has been in a state of unrest since.
Global internet watchdog Netblocks reported a significant disruption of internet services in the country following the protests in Sanandaj, the capital of the Kurdistan Province in western Iran. Iran’s capital, Tehran and other parts of the country also saw a near-complete disruption in internet services following protests. Daily curfew-like internet shutdowns continued until October 4, 2022.
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